Field of Technology
The present disclosure relates to a touch-sensitive display device, and more particularly to a touch-sensitive display device capable of minimizing cracks in touch electrodes possibly occurring in a flexible display and oxidation of wire electrodes, and of reducing power consumption for touch functionality.
Description of the Related Art
A touch-sensitive display device senses a user's touch made on one or more points on its display screen and also senses an operation associated with the user's touch. Such a touch-sensitive display device is widely utilized in personal handheld devices such as smart phones and tablet PCs, as well as in large display devices such as display devices placed in public facilities and smart TVs.
A touch-sensitive display device can be sorted by its operation manner into: a resistive type, a capacitive type, an IR (infrared ray) type, etc. Recently, a capacitive touch-sensitive display device is commonly used.
Typically, a capacitive touch-sensitive display device includes a plurality of first electrodes extending in a first direction and a plurality of second electrodes extending in a second direction. The electrodes are made of a transparent and electrically-conductive material such as ITO (indium tin oxide) and IZO (indium zinc oxide). In a capacitive touch-sensitive display device, when a user makes a physical contact on the display device, capacitance of the first electrodes and the second electrodes around the contact position is changed and the contact position is detected based on the change in capacitance.
Recently, a touch-sensitive display device is being developed as a flexible display which has become thinner and bendable. Accordingly, research is on-going for such a flexible display to reduce cracks in touch electrodes or the like.
Transparent and electrically-conductive materials used for touch electrodes, such as ITO (indium tin oxide), are not appropriate to be implemented in a flexible display because they are less flexible than typical metal materials. In addition, transparent and electrically-conductive materials have higher surface resistance than that of metal materials, and thus resistance between electrodes becomes is increased in the process of manufacturing a touch-sensitive display device for high precision and a large screen. Consequently, detection sensitivity of a touch location becomes lower.